VNA 03/04/2010 - Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on April 3 made a courtesy call on Senior General Than Shwe, Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council of Myanmar in Nay Pyi Taw capital city.

During the meeting, PM Dung thanked the
government and people of Myanmar for their warm welcome and hospitability to his
delegation.

The PM said he hoped Myanmar would
successfully conduct its roadmap towards democratisation for the sake of its
people and for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the
region.

He said Vietnam always attaches
importance to and wishes to develop its time-honoured friendship and
multifaceted cooperation with Myanmar . The ongoing visit, he added, is expected
to improve bilateral cooperation in economics, trade and investment.

Senior General Than Shwe warmly
welcomed PM Dung’s visit to Myanmar , praising Vietnam for the achievements of
its renewal process.

He said he believed the visit would
help strengthen the bilateral relations.

Earlier on April 2, leaders of the two
sides inked a joint statement on Vietnam-Myanmar cooperation, agreeing to fully
tap available potential for further expansion of multi-faceted cooperation,
especially in economy.

The Vietnamese and Myanmar Prime
Ministers agreed on specific measures to boost bilateral cooperation in
agriculture, industrial crops, aquaculture, banking-finance, aviation,
telecommunication, oil and gas, minerals, production of electrical appliances,
automobile assembly, construction, as well as trade and investment.

In agriculture, the two countries will
focus on implementing effectively the Memorandum of Understanding on Agriculture
between the Vietnam Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the
Myanmar Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation.

They will intensify effort to create
high-quality varieties of rice, maize, coffee and tea for commercial use and
promote investment in the field.

Regarding aquaculture, Vietnam and
Myanmar agreed to encourage and facilitate the establishment of fishing and fish
farming joint ventures, entailing the one between the A.S.V Holdings and
suitable partners from Myanmar .

In aviation, the two sides will
consider an agreement on granting visa exemption to flight crews of their
airlines and possibilities for the formation of partnerships to exploit Myanmar
’s international flight routes. Vietnam also showed eagerness to partner with
Myanmar in exploiting the latter’s domestic flight routes.

In oil and gas cooperation, Myanmar
pledged to create mutually-beneficial conditions for the Vietnam Oil and Gas
Group (PetroVietnam) to explore and produce oil and gas offshore Myanmar . The
Myanmar side agreed to consider the A.S.V. Holdings’ intention to explore and
exploit oil and gas in Myanmar .

Referring cooperation in minerals,
Vietnam praised Myanmar for permitting the SIMCO Song Da of Vietnam to mine a
white marble mine in Patle-in area, Thabyaw Taung, in Mandalay while Myanmar
agreed to offer suitable conditions for Vietnamese enterprises to conduct
minerals exploration and exploitation there.

The two sides agreed to facilitate
bilateral cooperation in commodities trade and services, encouraging trade
promotion and exchanges between their businesses. Vietnam showed interest in
wholesale and retail trade in Myanmar . The two countries also agreed to
negotiate an agreement on mutual recognition of product quality.

Apart from these fields, the two sides
reached consensus on boosting cooperation in culture, education, sports,
tourism, land transport, forestry, security and defence

Both countries wish an early signing of
an agreement on visa exemption for their ordinary passport holders in conformity
with the ASEAN agreement on visa exemption for citizens holding ordinary
passports./.